Leavine Family Racing driver would enjoy Bible tour of Middle East

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Michael McDowell, who currently races for Leavine Family Racing with sponsorship from Thrivent Financial.

Q: If NASCAR allowed you to listen to music while you were racing, would you want to?

A: Yeah. I'd listen to K-LOVE (one of his sponsors). I don't know if I could get a radio dial in there though. (Laughs)

Q: Where did your first paycheck come from?

A: My first real job was working at the Bob Bondurant School (of High Performance Driving) in the go-kart shop. I was 15 or 16 years old. I had paychecks before that, but it was like race winnings or working on karts. So that was my first real job where I went 9 to 5 every day.

What were you doing at Bondurant?

Preparing go-karts and I was an instructor at their karting school.

Q: Who is an autograph you got as a kid that seemed to be a big deal to you at the time?

A: I didn't get a lot of autographs as a kid. I've never really been into that part of it. I always just liked meeting people. I'm still not into it; I sign autographs because I know other people are (into it), but I don't quite get it. You know what I mean?

But as far as people who were cool to meet, Bryan Herta used to come to the go-kart races a lot on the West Coast and he's a guy that would spend time with you and talk to you. He was kind of a good mentor to a lot of the young guys coming up.

A: I would like to go on a tour of the Middle East. You can take a Bible tour to the different cities and see the Red Sea and things like that. I think that'd be pretty cool.

Q: Do people ever accuse you of being addicted to your phone?

A: Yeah, probably. I mean, it's hard. It can consume you very easily, but at the same time, there's a lot of information and you want to know what's going on. I try to unplug when I unplug, but during the week, there's a lot of social media and a lot of value to your partners, so you've got to do it.

I know you've taken several social media breaks. Have you been successful at staying off it during that time?

Yeah. So in the offseason, after Homestead, I shut it off until Jan. 1. And I legitimately do that. I take the apps off my phone, and I don't visit it, look at it, do anything with it from November to January. It's refreshing; it's nice.

Q: If a genie promised you a championship in exchange for never being able to do your favorite hobby again, would you accept that offer?

A: Yeah, because I wouldn't say I have a hobby I love so much that I wouldn't be willing to give it up. So that trade I would probably make.

Q: What's your preferred method of dealing with an angry driver after a race?

A: It depends what happened on the racetrack. But if I know for sure somebody is angry and I'm also upset, I usually try to diffuse it right away. I think it's usually best to do that. The worst thing to do is keep avoiding it.

I always look at it as trying to get an understanding of what happened versus being angry about it. There are times in my career when I've done things that were completely unintentional, but if you looked at it, you'd say, "Man, he really wrecked somebody." But it wasn't intentional. So I always try to remember that, because that could be you.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for another driver or celebrity?

A: Yeah, lots of times. Fans will just shout out random things – guys I don't even think I look like or who are a foot shorter than me. And it's funny, because it's usually the back half of the series they get mixed up. They'll call you "Reed (Sorenson)" or "(Travis) Kvapil" or all these different things, because they don't know exactly who you are, so they're trying to put it together.

Q: If you had a time machine and you could travel to any year and race, where would you go?

A: I'd rather have the ability to fly, just for the convenience of it. I'm not one who keeps to myself, so no need to be invisible.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. The last interview was with Denny Hamlin, and he wanted to know: Who is the next driver to come along and make it in Cup in a surprising way? Like someone who is good pretty quickly and no one saw it coming.

A: I'd go with somebody who is already there: Alex Bowman and Cole Whitt are very talented, but they just haven't gotten in a good seat yet.

How do you evaluate that?

When you watch people on the racetrack and you see how much they're getting out of their race car and how on the limit they are and their ability to run the top and the bottom, and just knowing what they're working with equipment-wise.